Choose blue and green as the colors for streamers, balloons, and table covers.

Hang a fish net and tuck in some sea shells and plastic ocean animals.

Scatter lots of beach balls and clean sand pails throughout the party area.

Use all the sea animal toys your child owns to decorate.

Place bunches of balloons around the party area. For each group of 5-7 balloons, use one Fish mylar balloon with the cheaper latex colored balloons. Always tie five helium balloons to the birthday child’s chair.

Hang a colorful piñata that matches your theme as a decoration. Later it will become an activity when the kids break it open.

Water Balloon Races – Let the children race with a water balloon tucked under their chin, under their arm or between their knees. They shouldn’t touch the balloon with their hands unless the balloon falls and doesn’t break…then they can pick it up and continue. If the balloon falls and breaks they are out of the race.

Water Tag – Have a new sponge and a bucket of water for this outdoor game. The player who is “it” chases the others and tries to tag someone with the soaking wet sponge. They can toss the sponge as a way to tag others. Whoever gets tagged is now “it” and the game continues.

Squirt Ball Game – Use large water squirt guns and two beach balls. Play with two children at a time. Each person squirts water to move the beach ball across the other player’s goal line. Keep taking turns until everyone has played.

Sea Hunt – Hide lots of sea shells in a sandbox and let the guests dig to find them.

Sand in a Bottle – Buy small plastic bottles used for sand art at the craft store. You’ll also need a package of Pixie Stix for each guest. Let the children pour the pixie stix “sand” into the bottle to create different colored layers. Warn them that if they shake the bottle, the layers will disappear as the “sand” mixes.

Pin The Tail on the Dolphin – Find Dolphin clip art online and have a copy shop enlarge it to poster size. Cut out different funny animal tails for the kids to use like a whale, horse, mermaid, dinosaur etc.

Pasta Sea Shells – Use a package of dry pasta shells and let the guests paint them. Have glitter glue pens to help decorate the shells.

Ocean Snow Globe Craft – Collect and clean a clear plastic bottle (like a water bottle) for each guest. At the party, help them to pour ¼ cup of clean sand, a tablespoon of glitter, some tiny sea shells, and a few plastic fish. Have ready some water tinted blue (use food coloring) and pour it into the bottle. Screw the lid on tightly and let the kids shake their new ocean snow globes.

Storytime – For younger kids, read them a sea story like Finding Nemo, The Owl and the Pussycat, or The Rainbow Fish.

Honestly, kids will be having so much fun at this party that you don’t need to worry about food. They will devour whatever you serve! If you do want to tie in the ocean theme, here are a few ways to do it:

Hotdog Octopus – Every kid’s cookbook seems to include this cute recipe. Mine shows the hot dog served on a scoop of seashell pasta. Starting one inch from one end of hot dog, slice it down to the other end. Take each of the two segments you just created and slice them into four legs, for a total of eight legs. Heat the hot dogs in boiling water to make the legs curl. Add two dots of mustard for eyes, and serve the octopus dogs.